Parting shots reloaded

Welcome to the second to last column I will write for this great paper of ours. So enough with the ass kissing let’s get on with it.

Last time I wrote how the media blew the whole Dixie Chick thing out of proportion. So let’s talk about some other controversial performers.

Michael Moore won a much-deserved Oscar for his documentary “Bowling for Columbine” and then used his speech to criticize President Bush. Moore has been saying that contrary to what the polls say there is a large percentage of the population in this country who are not happy with the current president. Anyone who was shocked by his speech apparently does not know Mr. Moore very well. He has been critical of Bush since the 2000 election. Has his speech on Oscar night and his constant criticism of Bush hurt his career. Well, I will let him say in his own words:

“On the day after I criticized Bush and the war at the Academy Awards, attendance at ‘Bowling for Columbine’ in theaters around the country went up 110 percent. The following weekend, the box-office gross was up a whopping 73 percent. It is now the longest-running consecutive commercial release in America, 26 weeks in a row and still thriving. The number of theaters showing the film since the Oscars has INCREASED, and it has now bested the previous box office record for a documentary by nearly 300 percent. ‘Stupid White Men’ (Moore’s book) shot back to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This is my book’s 50th week on the list, eight of them at No. 1, and this marks its fourth return to the top position, something that virtually never happens. In the week after the Oscars, my Web site was getting 10 to 20 million hits A DAY (one day we even got more hits than the White House!). The mail has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive (and the hate mail has been hilarious!). In the two days following the Oscars, more people pre-ordered the video for ‘Bowling for Columbine’ on Amazon.com than the video for the Oscar winner for Best Picture, ‘Chicago.’ In the past week, I have obtained funding for my next documentary, and I have been offered a slot back on television to do an updated version of ‘TV Nation’/’The Awful Truth.'”

Yeah, speaking his opinion really hurt his career.

Comedian Janeane Garofalo throughout this whole Iraq thing has been all over talk shows taking on conservatives and winning. She knows her stuff about the war and has done a great job. Hey, she even slammed WRVA’s own Michael Graham on “Real Time with Bill Maher” a few weeks ago. She is working on a new show for ABC “Slice of Life.” So now all the wonderful people out there who feel that she does not have the right to criticize the Bush administration are calling and e-mailing ABC to not air the show. Well that is just wrong. I am sick of people being attacked in this country for speaking their mind. That is what makes this country great. So if you want to support Janeane go to http://www.takebackthemedia.com/janeane.html and tell ABC that you support her right to free speech.

Four episodes, only four episodes left of my favorite TV show. It has been an amazing seven seasons for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” “Buffy” has been one of the most unique and critically acclaimed shows in TV history. It has never been given the credit it deserves by the TV industry.

Never has a show made me laugh, cry, be surprised and amazed as much as this show. It is hard to put into words how much this show has meant to me. Even though the show dealt with demons, vampires and the occult, there has never been another show that has dealt with the horrors of high school, the awkward transition from youth into adulthood as realistically as this show has. I haven’t even talked about the actors on this show.

The current Scooby gang Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Tractenberg, Anthony Stewart Head, Thomas Lenk and past cast members David Boreanz, Charisma Carpenter, Alexis Denisof, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Eliza Dushku, Amber Benson, Kristin Sutherland, Juliet Landau, Robia La Morte, Adam Busch, Danny Strong, Clare Kramer, Mark Metcalf, Armin Shimmerman, Julie Benz, Harry Groener and anyone I left out. None of the actors who have been on the show get the credit they deserve.

This show has consistently had one of the best ensembles on television. If you have never watched the show I recommend you check it out on FX where they run the show from the beginning in chronological order or get the DVD sets.

All I know is that when the final episode ends Tuesday, May 20, I will have probably laughed my ass off and cried my eyes out. Thank you Joss Whedon for creating one of the most amazing universes television has ever seen. For me, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. will never be the same again.

In the final shot, VCU, thank you and one last salute to the Bush administration.